Characterization of wood-laden flows in rivers

Inorganic sediment is not the only solid‐fraction component of river flows; flows may also carry significant amounts of large organic material (i.e., large wood), but the characteristics of these wood‐laden flows (WLF) are not well understood yet. With the aim to shed light on these relatively unexamined phenomena, we collected home videos showing natural flows with wood as the main solid component. Analyses of these videos as well as the watersheds and streams where the videos were recorded allowed us to define for the first time WLF, describe the main characteristics of these flows and broaden the definition of wood transport regimes (adding a new regime called here hypercongested wood transport). According to our results, WLF may occur repeatedly, in a large range of catchment sizes, generally in steep, highly confined single thread channels in mountain areas. WLF are typically highly unsteady and the log motion is non‐uniform, as described for other inorganic sediment‐laden flows (e.g., debris flows). The conceptual integration of wood into our understanding of flow phenomena is illustrated by a novel classification defining the transition from clear water to hypercongested, wood and sediment‐laden flows, according to the composition of the mixture (sediment, wood, and water). We define the relevant metrics for the quantification and modelling of WLF, including an exhaustive discussion of different modelling approaches (i.e., Voellmy, Bingham and Manning) and provide a first attempt to simulate WLF. We draw attention to WLF phenomena to encourage further field, theoretical, and experimental investigations that may contribute to a better understanding of flows river basins, leading to more accurate predictions, and better hazard mitigation and management strategies

Defining and characterizing wood-laden flows in rivers using home videos

Organic material (i.e., trees, branches, wood in general) is commonly neglected among the classical criteria to distinguish flow types, mostly due to the lack of direct observations of flows in which this load is significant. However, in forested basins, large amounts of wood can be transported. Here we define and characterize, for the first time, wood-laden flows and show that these flows may occur repeatedly in a river basin, carrying substantial amount of organic material, with probable impacts on the ecosystem and potential hazards. We propose a novel classification of flows from clear water to hypercongested wood debris flows, according to the composition of sediment, wood and water. Our results will contribute to a better understanding of flow phenomena in forested river basins, which may facilitate the design of better management strategies

Defining and characterizing wood-laden flows in rivers using home videos

Organic material (i.e., trees, branches, wood in general) is commonly neglected among the classical criteria to distinguish flow types, mostly due to the lack of direct observations of flows in which this load is significant. However, in forested basins, large amounts of wood can be transported. Here we define and characterize, for the first time, wood-laden flows and show that these flows may occur repeatedly in a river basin, carrying substantial amount of organic material, with probable impacts on the ecosystem and potential hazards. We propose a novel classification of flows from clear water to hypercongested wood debris flows, according to the composition of sediment, wood and water. Our results will contribute to a better understanding of flow phenomena in forested river basins, which may facilitate the design of better management strategies

Comparing direct and indirect selfing rate estimates: when are population-structure estimates reliable?

The rate of self-fertilization (that is, selfing) is a key evolutionary parameter in hermaphroditic species, yet obtaining accurate estimates of selfing rates in natural populations can be technically challenging. Most published estimates are derived from population-level heterozygote deficiency (that is, FIS) or identity disequilibria (for example, the software RMES (robust multilocus estimate of selfing)). These indirect methods can be applied to population genetic survey data, whereas direct methods using progeny arrays require much larger data sets that are often difficult to collect in natural populations or even require captive breeding. Unfortunately, indirect methods rely on assumptions that can be problematic, such as negating biparental inbreeding, inbreeding disequilibrium and (for FIS) the presence of null alleles. The performance of indirect estimates against progeny-array estimates is still largely unknown. Here we used both direct progeny-array and indirect population-level methods to estimate the selfing rate in a single natural population of the simultaneously hermaphroditic freshwater snail Radix balthica throughout its reproductive lifespan using 10 highly polymorphic microsatellites. We found that even though progeny arrays (n=1034 field-collected embryos from 60 families) did not reveal a single selfed embryo, FIS-based selfing rates (n=316 adults) were significantly positive in all 6 sequential population samples. Including a locus with a high frequency of null alleles further biased FIS-based estimates. Conversely, RMES-based estimates were very similar to progeny-array estimates and proved insensitive to null alleles. The assumptions made by RMES were thus either met or irrelevant in this particular population, making RMES a valid, cost-efficient alternative to progeny arrays